John's Music Blog

In all of my excitement about Facebook, I forgot to mention Xing, to which I was introduced by Billa Bhandari, who is CEO of Akoura.  Akoura offers some interesting security software.   If you use Akoura’s DataSecure product, you get a perfect excuse to use the word “obfuscation” in polite conversation.  DataSecure is a software product that, in the company’s words, “protects information through the use (of) unique obfuscation technology and strong authentication that transforms any sensitive information into plausible covers.”   Personally, I’m interested in both obfuscation and plausible covers.  I have a feeling that there are some government agencies similarly interested.

I first met Billa, when he and I worked at State Street Bank.   I’ve posted a profile on Xing, and I like the way in which it visually shows you how you are connected to other people, but I am a long way from being a heavy user.  OK, I only have one connection, which is Billa.  But Billa is connected to over 2000 people at last count, so Billa’s a good person to know.  Which reminds me, I owe him a call.

Are any of you using Xing?

I was an early user of online business-networking sites, but have until recently avoided the social-networking sites.  So what exactly would induce a 50-something, former storage analyst to join Facebook?  To hang out with some storage geeks, of course.  Turns out there are several storage-related groups on Facebook.  Here are a couple: 

• Storage Gurus, which includes members like Steve Terlizzi and Joel Reich 
• Fans of High End Storage, which includes members like Barry Burke, Marc Farley, Steve Kenniston, Dave Vellante, and Roland Bavington

The names are pretty familiar to those of us who have been around the storage industry.  What surprised me most about joining Facebook was to see who else was already there.  Sure, I found the storage geeks. But I also found some stoggier investor types and business executives mixed in with the edgier and younger folks I expected to find.  Finding my 20-something nephews in Facebook was not a surprise. (more…)

Back-of-the-napkin analysis isn’t good enough for some people, as one friend illustrated, when after my last post he sent me this link to an available research report on Ice Cream in the USA to 2011.  This report, which provides volume, value, share and per-capita consumption analysis across four categories of ice cream, confirms once again what my brother, Ken, has said, “If you focus narrowly enough, and study intensely enough for a few weeks, you can become the world’s leading expert on a topic.”  If the availability of this 120-page, 530 Euro report isn’t enough to prove Ken’s claim, note on the weblink the assertion that “Customers who bought this report also bought Ice Cream in Pakistan to 2011 and Ice Cream in Argentina to 2011.   Having been to Argentina and observed the beauty of the country, I had been hoping to become the world’s leading expert on ice cream consumption in the country. Alas, the job has been taken.  I guess I will need to focus more narrowly.  Perhaps I’ll focus on the per-capita consumption of 18 oz. Porterhouse steaks.  You wouldn’t believe how much meat they eat in Argentina. In the meantime, I’m wondering, if I can get a discount on a three-country ice cream report bundle. (more…)

When I was interviewing candidates for analyst positions at my former employer, I would often engage in a friendly exercise of “cognitive estimation.”  We all use cognitive estimation  to answer a question, when the exact answer is unknowable, or difficult to know without expensive or difficult measurement.  Clinical neuropsychologists use normed tests of cognitive estimation to evaluate the impact of brain injury, dementia,  and Alzheimer’s disease in patients.  Back at the market research company, I made up my own examples to assess the “common sense” and thinking process of applicants. Here’s an example: 

“How many gallons of ice cream were sold in Massachusetts in the month of July, 2007?”  

You could spend a lot of money with research houses, point-of-sale tracking systems, or field observers, and come up with some rather precise numbers.  Or you could take the total number of Massachusetts residents, multiply by some reasonable estimate of daily ice cream consumption on warm days (something more than a spoonful and less than a quart, I’d guess) and multiply that by 31 days, and get to a good-enough, back-of-the-napkin answer.  This back-of-the-napkin analysis is exactly what seems to be missing in some startups, and it’s exactly the kind of analysis that marketing needs to be doing before product development engages too much engineering talent.

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I spoke with my brother, Ken, during the past week, and we were talking about his business.  I’ve never fully understood Ken’s business, but he is, in his words, in the business of “Helping people realize their dreams of starting their own business.”  Ken is an internet and affiliate-marketing expert.  He runs successful conferences on the topic, writes software, writes books, and teaches people how to make money through affiliate marketing programs.  Now, a lot of people want to have their own business, and since Ken is in the business of helping people “realize their dreams,” I was a little surprised to hear him also say, “Some people shouldn’t run their own business.”  It just goes to show you, he’s an honest fellow.  And he’s right; some people don’t belong in the pool.  This morning, I thought of my conversation with Ken, when I saw some small critter making tiny waves in our pool.  The critter turned out to be a chipmunk, paddling furiously, getting nowhere, barely keeping its nose out of the water.  I pulled the chipmunk out of the pool, but for the record, chipmunks don’t swim well or for long, and don’t belong in the pool.  (more…)

I’ve made more than a few mistakes in my various careers.  One of them was buying a near bowling-alley length automated tape library (ATL) with a robot whose size, if not speed, would rival any in Detroit.  I made the purchase based upon the promise of future enhancements that would ensure this would be the last tape library I would ever buy.  You see, the ATL was going to be upgradeable to a Virtual Tape Library (VTL), and all my backup and restore problems would be, if not solved, at least contained.   To be fair, it was a committee decision, but I was a strong internal proponent.  Suffice it to say that the VTL upgrade was late and more virtual than real, and the ATL wasn’t the last library the company had to purchase.  In fact, I heard rumors that a second ATL was  offered for free, since the VTL upgrade was late.  But I can’t verify the rumor.  By that time, I had moved on to a new company, where my job was predicting the future.  The irony is not lost on me. (more…)

I told you in an earlier post that I would tell readers about some institutions “about which I care deeply.”  One of those is Metrowest Jewish Day School, and tonight I spent time on the phones trying to raise scholarship money for students who want to attend.  As with most private religious schools, particularly those in startup mode like ours, the cost of tuition is substantially less than the cost to educate.  In addition, many families can not afford the cost of tuition.  But because we want to make this unique education open to all in our community, we do the fundraising.  So far this year, we are more than 80% of the way to meeting our goal of raising $700,000. 

As an inexperienced solicitor, I was thankful for the script that was provided for my pitch.  In short, this script, which was a good “pitch,” explained who we are and the fact that we are raising money for scholarships.  Short and sweet.  Next to me was another inexperienced solicitor and parent of a student at the school, who made more calls and raised more money than me tonight.  But I accomplished something that, over the long run, I hope will turn out to be just as valuable.  I sold the school.  Or more accurately, I began the process of selling the school. (more…)

When my partner and I founded our company, we wanted to ensure that our interests were aligned with that of our clients.  That drove several decisions in terms of our business model and fee structure.  On the one hand, we needed enough revenue to keep the lights on.  That’s in our clients’ interest and in ours. But, we intentionally kept our costs extremely low, taking the minimum office space that is necessary to operate the business and only spending money on those things absolutely  required to operate the business.   There’s no “flash” when you come to visit.  The chairs, the desks, the filing cabinets, and the computers have all been around the block more than once.   That allows us to keep our retainer fees comparitively low.  Again, that’s in our clients’ interest and in ours.  

On the other hand, we expect to be compensated fairly and proportionally, if we help our clients grow their revenue and increase the value of their businesses.  If we drive a million dollars in sales, we’ve increased revenue, but we’ve also increased the value of the business, and we expect to participate in that increased value.  That notion is difficult for some, who are used to a commission-only, a fee-for-service, or an hourly-rate model. 

In keeping with our aligned-interest model, if we work with one company, we don’t work with their direct competitors.  That might seem patently obvious to some, but probe a bit on the companies offering to make introductions or help promote your company, and you may be surprised at how many of those offering to work with you also work with your direct competitors.  (more…)

Thanks to the amazing support staff at HostMySite and the help of a good friend, I am finally starting to make good on my promise to be A Business Resource for Entrepreneurs and Inventors.  I’ve been faithfully blogging about once a week and including suggestions and commentary on how to succeed as an entrepreneur.  But I hadn’t really started to create a library of resources, which is what I want to do. 

What I needed to do first was learn a little bit about coding in HTML.  It’s hard to believe that only 3 months ago, the only person in my immediate family who could even remotely begin to code in HTML, XML, or CSS was my 12-year old son.  But I have finally learned how to modify WordPress templates, create new pages, and link to them.  I modified the dead-end tabs that were across the top of my blog (thanks to everyone who pointed that out), and they now lead to some resources, which I hope you will find helpful.  Hey, I even uploaded a picture of me taken in the waiting area of a conference center in Tokyo a few years back, so you can now see who is writing this blog.

Check out the Books and Resources pages, and more importantly, send suggestions of other books and on-line resources that will help this community of entrepreneurs.  I’ll be updating it frequently.

I believe there are three critical ingredients in an entrepreneur:

• Faith
• Trust
• Passion 

In Business Plans That Work, the authors state:

We find that entrepreneurs often ask, “What can go right?” whereas nonentrepreneurs ask, “What can go wrong?”

Asking “What can go right?” is an act of faith.  It is faith that you have been given sufficient talent and drive, which, when combined with the experience you have earned, will enable you to succeed.  But you also need trust.  In my case, it was trust in a business partner, whom I’ve known for 20 years.  It was also the encouragement and support of a trusted friend, Kirby, who had preceded me in the entrepreneurial plunge.  His life seems to exemplify the values promoted by Pay It Forward. No one makes it as an entrepreneur without someone beside them, in front of them or behind them as a support. (more…)